At 14, Hunt found out she was adopted but never searched for information about her birth mother until 2001, when her adopted mother died. At the request of her mother, Hunt's daughter Samantha began searching for more information about her family. Then in 2013 they found out Hunt was a twin.

When Hamel received letter of the news from Hunt, she noticed the return address was listed as the town where she was born in the UK, so she opened it immediately. With Hamel living in Oregon and Hunt still in the UK, the two were only able to communicate through Skype and other electronic means up until they met in person for the first time on Thursday -- breaking the Guinness World Record for longest gap between separated twins meeting for the first time.